The result of his cogitations was the invention of a contrivance which he put between his fingers and kept there even during the night, by this means endeavouring to increase the extensibility and flexibility of his hands.

The "suspense" sequences, with chases in cars and helicopters, appear to bear the influence of Michael Mann, but it is the calmer, more cerebral notes that are most successful: droll cogitations on hypocrisy, guilt and innocence, with satirical touches that resonate interestingly with this week's news stories about Nicolas Sarkozy and Liliane Bettencourt.

He felt that everything he had experienced since his imprisonment had been only a prelude; that his cogitations had led him to a dead end -- on to the threshold of what Ivanov called the "metaphysical brothel" -- and that he must begin again from the beginning.

These unsatisfactory cogitations had left Maidie with a brooding headache, and an air of wary uncertainty, which caused her to shy hastily away from Dela garde when she encountered him in the downstairs breakfast parlour.